Mail production systems

ABSTRACT

A mail production system is described, the system comprising a mail finishing system for converting documents into finished items of mail ready for hand-over to a postal service, and a secure accounting system for generating accounting data relating to the items of mail produced by the mail finishing system, wherein the secure accounting system is able to generate signals to control operation of the mail finishing system. Specifically the secure accounting system is able to delay or stop operation of the mail finishing system. A corresponding method of producing mail is also described.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is for entry into the U.S. national phase under §371for International Application No. PCT/EP01/06658 having an internationalfiling date of Jun. 12, 2001, and from which priority is claimed underall applicable sections of Title 35 of the United States Code including,but not limited to, Sections 120, 363 and 365(c), and which in turnclaims priority under 35 USC §119 to Great Britain Patent ApplicationNo. 0015001.1 filed on Jun. 19, 2000.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a mail production system comprising amail finishing system for converting documents into finished items ofmail ready for hand-over to a postal service and a secure accountingsystem for generating accounting data relating to the items of mailproduced by the mail finishing system, and to corresponding methods ofmail production.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventionally, a mail finishing system, such as an inserter machine forinserting collations of documents into envelopes to create finisheditems of mail has been under control of an inserter system controller,which may form an integral part of the inserter machine. Data generatedby the inserter system controller is passed to the secure accountingsystem so that the secure accounting system may generate accounting datarelating to the items of mail produced by the mail finishing system. Thedata passed by the inserter system controller to the secure accountingsystem typically comprises information concerning the weight and postagevalue of items of mail generated by the mail finishing system, as wellas the number of items of mail in a batch of mail. On the basis of thisinformation, the secure accounting system maintains a record of postagevalue dispensed in relation to the items of mail generated by the mailfinishing system. But there may be instances where the secure accountingsystem is unable to process the information received from the mailfinishing system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide a mail production system inwhich failure of the secure accounting system to process informationsufficiently rapidly from the mail finishing system can be accommodated.

Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention provides a mailproduction system comprising: a mail finishing system for convertingdocuments into finished items of mail ready for hand-over to a postalservice, and a secure accounting system for generating accounting datarelating to the items of mail produced by the mail finishing system,wherein the secure accounting system is operable to generate signals tocontrol operation of the mail finishing system.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of producingmail comprising converting documents into finished items of mail readyfor hand-over to a postal service under control of a secure accountingsystem for generating accounting data relating to the items of mail thusproduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will be betterunderstood from the following description, given by way of example, inassociation with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 schematically shows the component parts of a mailer-postalservice interface;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic plan view of the mail finishing system andsecure accounting system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a screen display of an inserter system controller;

FIG. 4 shows the operational features of the secure accounting system 14shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 shows a message flow between the secure accounting system and theinserter system controller of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the drawings and in the following description, the mailer may also bereferred to alternatively as a customer of the postal service.

A mailer-postal service interface may be represented schematically asshown in FIG. 1, in which the enumerated boxes represent functionalcomponents of the interface and the vertical dashed line down the centreof FIG. 1 divides functional components of the interface generallyassociated with the mailer (shown in the left-hand side of FIG. 1) fromfunctional components of the interface generally associated with thepostal service (shown in the right-hand side of FIG. 1).

The mailer-postal service interface shown in FIG. 1 is concerned withbulk volumes of mail, the hand-over of which from the mailer to thepostal service is announced by means of a statement of mailingsubmission (SMS). An SMS is a message or document, from the mailer tothe postal service describing the composition of a submission. Theprocess of hand-over, of one or more submissions of mail, for acceptanceby the postal service is called induction. Where several submissions arehanded over as part of a single transaction, the set of submissionsconcerned is documented in a statement of induction (SoI). A statementof induction is a message which defines the set of submissions inductedinto the postal system as part of a single hand-over transaction. Asubmission is part of a mailing which is inducted (possibly withsubmissions from other mailings) as a single unit. A mailing is alogical collection of mail, from the perspective of the mailer.Normally, a mailing will comprise mail which it is logical to generateas a unit and will be the unit for which the mailer expects to beinvoiced. For physical production purposes, mailings may be broken downinto one or more production batches. For induction purposes, on theother hand, they are broken down into submissions, with individualsubmissions being separately inducted. This may occur, for example, whenthe production of a mailing is spread over several days. Some postalservices, however, may require each submission to be treated as aseparate mailing, or may limit the number of submissions into which amailing is split.

The functional components enumerated in FIG. 1 will now be described.

A mailer systems component 10 represents existing customer dataprocessing systems, dealing with normal business functions includingmail generation and company accounting. For example, such dataprocessing systems include desktop computers running applicationprograms for word processing and maintaining records and accounts.

A mail finishing system component 12 represents specialised equipmentand control systems used for converting raw documents derived from themailer systems 10 into finished mail, ready for hand-over to the postalservice. Such equipment includes inserting, enveloping and addressing orlabelling machines, postage metering equipment, bundling and wrappingequipment, etc.

The mail finishing system component 12 comprises a mail finishing printsub-system 120 which is responsible for the composition and printing ofproof-of-payment indicia on mail items. It assembles data componentsrequired for a digital proof-of-payment mark to be added to mail items,encodes these in appropriate symbology and controls the process for theprinting thereof on mail items.

A secure accounting system 14 is a trusted accounting device responsiblefor maintaining secure information and returning, to its controlling ITsystem, a digital signature for use in the authentication of postalpayment indicia. At the end of each mail production run by the mailer,it also provides data and a cryptographic signature for a statement ofmailing.

During a mail run the mail finishing system 12 passes postal ratinginformation (e.g. the mail type and weight) to the secure accountingsystem 14. The secure accounting system supports payment security(encryption and authentication) requirements, maintains accountinginformation related to payments effected by the mailer, pre-paid orcredit balance outstanding and unused payment tokens, returns a postageamount based on the requested input parameters, together with a digitalsignature of other payment evidencing token, and maintains a summary tomail piece types so that an SMS can be generated at the completion ofthe mail run.

To fulfil these functions, the secure accounting system 14 usescryptographic techniques, based on design-specific algorithms and keymanagement systems. It communicates with other devices and systemsprimarily through an announcement system 16, but may communicatedirectly with reconciliation and support systems 22 used for maintenanceand re-crediting.

The secure accounting system 14 is responsible for controlling andinterfacing with other components to ensure that the mail produced bythe mailer is properly accounted for and provided with appropriate proofof payment in the form of digital indicia. Its main purpose is tocomplement the mailer and/or mail finishing systems 10, 12, as well asbeing for accounting for and printing the digital indicium onto eachmail-piece. The announcement system 16, on the other hand is responsiblefor compilation of data for statements of mailing and the electronicsubmission of these to the postal service's acceptance system 18 and theprocessing of responses received from that system.

The acceptance system 18 supports the acceptance of mail into the postalservice's mail handling environment and controls the hand-over of mailfrom the mailer to the postal service. This hand-over may take placeeither on the mailer's premises or in postal acceptance offices.

The acceptance system 18 accepts, records and acknowledges the arrivalfrom mailers of statements of mailing. Data provided in each SMS arepassed to the postal service's collections and other planning systems tosupport logistics optimisation, and to the mail-piece verificationsystem 20 for revenue protection purposes.

The acceptance system 18 provides mail acceptance staff with anautomated capability to authenticate incoming mail based on submittedstatements of mailing. Where a mail submission can be reconciled withthe SMS which describes it, the SMS is passed to the postal service'saccounting system 260 for accounting verification, revenuereconciliation and, in the case of post-invoicing, invoicing purposes.Receipt and acceptance of the mail submission is acknowledged to thecustomer's announcement system 16.

If no reconciliation is possible, the acceptance system 18 informs theoperator. When there is a justifiable suspicion that fraud has beenattempted by the mailer, the acceptance system will assist in obtainingevidence of this.

The acceptance system 18 may also be used in the acceptance of mailsubmissions for which no statement of mailing has been submitted. Inthis case, data for validation is gained from sampling individual mailpieces.

The mail-piece verification system 20 processes and authenticates thepayment evidence and/or customer identification provided by the indiciumprinted on each mail piece and collects information needed foraccounting or accounting verification. In particular, it accepts datafrom individual mail pieces collected by the mail handlinginfrastructure, checks that such data presents acceptable evidence ofpayment for the services required, compares the data for consistencywith information from the SMS, acknowledges to the acceptance system 18the validity of the SMS involved, and passes data on payment evidencefor payment management and fraud detection purposes to the acceptancesystem 18.

Reconciliation and support 22 is a collective name for a number ofsystems concerned with the management of postage accounting devicesinstalled on the mailer's premises. Such systems provide re-settingservices, i.e. services for the re-setting or re-crediting of postagepayment devices, for example to the secure accounting system 4, andmonitoring and maintenance services, i.e. services concerned withensuring the functionality and reliability of postage payment devicesand with detecting and preventing attempts to tamper with them. Again,these services concern primarily the secure accounting system 14.

The reconciliation and support systems 22 may be owned and operatedeither by a postal administration, or by a third party, working onbehalf of the postal administration concerned.

The bank component 24 represents the means of effecting payment,normally through the commercial or postal banking system.

Post systems 26 represent the postal data processing infrastructure,including systems for customer account management and traditionalaccounting (bookkeeping) systems.

The mail handling infrastructure component 28 represents existinginfrastructure for automated mail processing, including OCR and bar-codesorting machines, delivery sequencing equipment, etc. The processcontrol systems used to manage this infrastructure are also included.

For present purposes, mail item data capture will come primarily fromhand-held scanning devices associated directly with the verificationsystem 20, rather than from the existing infrastructure.

The customer information system 30 is a system which supports theelectronic reporting of, and access to, information on the acceptanceand processing of the mailer's special category mail, the provision ofpostal information (both public and customer-contract specific) toassist the mailer in preparing mail for submission to the postalservice, and the expression and recording of the mailer's preferencesfor the way mail is delivered to them.

The inquiry and data system 32 is the mailer's complement to thecustomer information system 30. It can be implemented using a standardworldwide web browser to access the customer information system 30.

In FIG. 1, physical mail follows the path represented by the bold arrowfrom mail finishing system 12 to acceptance system 18 and thence to mailhandling infrastructure 28. Other arrows in FIG. 1 representsinterchange of information relating to mail contents, including but notrestricted to, for example, mail type and weight and accountinginformation and information for incorporation as part of the physicalmail itself. Diamond-headed lines in FIG. 1. connecting component boxes20, 26, 28 and 30 represent data integration conducted by the postalservice.

FIG. 2 shows more detail of the mail finishing system 12 of FIG. 1. Aninserter machine 121 includes first and second vertical stackers 122 and123 and an ink-jet print head 120 forming a print sub-system. Aninserter system controller (ISC) 125 with a data entry station 126provides control signals to the machine 121, as represented in FIG. 2 bythe dashed line connecting ISC 125 with the dashed line enclosinginserter machine 121 in a lasso. The secure accounting system (SAS) 14provides control signals only to the ink-jet print head 120 of theinserter machine 121, as represented in FIG. 2 by the dashed lineconnecting SAS 14 with the ink-jet print head 120. Bi-directionalcontrol signals pass between the ISC 125 and the SAS 14. This allows theSAS to issue control signals to the ISC to cause delay or stopping ofthe operation of the inserter 121. This may be necessary, for example,when the printer 120 is not ready in time to print on the appropriatemailpiece as it is fed downstream from the stackers 122 and 123.

FIG. 2 also represents the sequence of events during operation of themail finishing system 12 be means of circled capital letters. Initially,a user of the mail finishing system enters job or mode-specific data tothe ISC 125 via a graphical user interface providing appropriate screendisplays (A). The ISC 125 downloads the job or mode-specific data andqueries the SAS 14 as to the status of the ink-jet print head (B). TheSAS 14 replies to the ISC 125 with the ink-jet print head device state(C). The ISC 125 then transmits mailpiece data for a specificallynumbered item of mail to the inserter machine 120 (D). As an envelopeadvances in the direction represented by the arrowed circles in FIG. 2,the ISC 125 transmits/print/no print/specific print commands for theitem of mail in question to the SAS 14, which accordingly controls theink-jet print head 120 whenever print control is active to print on theitem of mail in question to the SAS 14, which accordingly controls theink-jet print head 120 whenever print control is active to print on theitem of mail in question (E). The SAS 14 controls printing of anindicium on the item of mail (F) and sends a confirmation message to theISC 125 for each item of mail thus printed, again if print control isactive. If no confirmation message is received by the ISC 125, the ISCdeclares and/or logs an error (G). Eventually, after completion of thebatch of mail items under production by the mail finishing system 12,the ISC 125 informs the SAS 14 of the end of the job run and provides arecord of the processed mail to the SAS 14 for subsequent reconciliationof accounting data (H). As represented by (I), the SAS 14 may sendunsolicited messages to the ISC 125 as necessary.

FIG. 3 shows a screen display on the data entry terminal 126, showinghow the user may select various control options by marking theappropriate box in a list of options.

FIG. 4 shows the operational features of the secure accounting system14. The purposes of the accounting system 14 include to collect data forthe announcement system 16 and to generate information for indicia to beprinted on items of mail by print sub-system 120. Operation of theaccounting system 14 is initiated by the mailer.

Inputs to the accounting system 14 include mail data from mailingmachine 12. Outputs of the accounting system 14 include the statement ofbatch which is sent to announcement system 16 and data for creatingpostage indicia. This data is sent to print sub-system 120 of themailing machine 12 so that it can print the postage indicia on items ofmail. The results of these operations are secure measurement of thevalue of mail processed and control of data transferred to theannouncement system 16.

The mail finishing print subsystem 120 resides on the mail finishingmachine 12 and produces the indicia. Control for the print subsystemcomes from the mail finishing machine 12 and data for the indicia isgenerated in the accounting system 14.

The accounting system 14 is used to monitor and report on mail ratingsand compute total charges for a batch of mail or report on charges anddiscounts agreed with the postal service.

In the case of pre-payment, when a vault is used to store actual fundsfor dispersal on use, the accounting system 14 is intended to monitorthe funds being dispensed. This account information is then reported tothe internal accounts department of the mailer. This forms the accountdata included on the statement of mailing by the announcement system. Inthe case of pre-negotiated discounts this can be calculated andreported.

In the case where post-payment mail is being generated, the accountingsystem 14 monitors the number of pieces processed by the mail finishingmachine 12 and this, in conjunction with the calculated postage, issubmitted on the statement of mailing by the announcement system 16 tothe postal service. An internal accounting report for the mailer isgenerated by the accounting system in line with the statement of mailingagreement generated by the postal service to agree with the submittedaccounting figures. The batch Id is used to reconcile the statement ofmailing with the statement of mailing agreement. Any invoices or accountsummaries then presented by the postal service must then use the batchId to allow the mailer's internal systems to track the paymentassociated with the internal accounting report.

Where it is required, the accounting system can give the mailer thepossibility to define an additional reference number according to hispayment system.

The accounting system 14 can be further enhanced to include a datarepository feature to monitor the postage meter usage andmailing-profiles of the mailer.

The accounting system 14 is able not only to receive data for accountingpurposes and to control the timing of mail production and exceptionhandling (which is described in greater detail below), but is also ableto feed control signals back to the mail finishing systems 12 to causethe mail finishing systems to delay production of a batch of mail or tostop. This control of the mail finishing systems 12 by the secureaccounting system 14 includes control of the print sub-system 120. Thesefeatures allow that during certain instances when the accounting system14 may need to take control of the mail finishing systems 12 or wherethe print sub-system 120 is not ready to print, the secure accountingsystem 14 can take control of operation of the mail finishing systems 12including the print sub-system 120. Thus, for example, if the mailfinishing systems 12 comprise a production mail machine, such as aninserter for inserting collations of documents into envelopes, which isunder the control of an inserter system controller forming part of themail finishing systems 12, the secure accounting system 14 takes controlof the inserter system controller. In such a case, therefore, theinsertion of further collations of documents into envelopes by theinserter and the franking of sealed envelopes containing collations ofdocuments by the print sub-system 120 will be delayed or stopped by thesecure accounting system 14 providing control signals to the insertersystem controller.

The accounting system 14 may be physically located on the mailingmachine 12. Possible further accounting system functions are as follows.

Account Tracking

This feature of the accounting system 14 tracks the mail rates beingused by the mailer or the number of mail pieces being produced. Theaccounting system uses this information to provide summaries of the datato the announcement system 16. If postage metering is internal to theaccounting system, it has full access to the metering informationnecessary to support this function. If, on the other hand, metering isexternal, the accounting system has to support account query messages toobtain the information from the meter. In the case of non-metered mailthis feature tracks the number of pieces processed by the mail finishingmachine 12 and accounts for mail based on the service selected by themailer.

Register Management

This feature of the accounting system 14 refers to internal control offunds if an internal meter approach is pursued or the control of anexternal-metering device, if this is used to control the mail funds.This is only relevant in the case where postage is paid for before afranking impression is made on the envelope of an item of mail generatedby mail finishing systems 12. In the case where postage is paid eitheron mail acceptance by the postal service or invoiced, account trackingtakes precedence.

Exception Handling

This function of the accounting system 14 is used to monitor thefunctioning of the mail-finishing machine 12 and to report back to theannouncement system 16 on outsorted mail pieces. This feature generatesreports on metered mail that will not be entering the mail stream sentto the postal service, so that re-credit of funds can be carried outautomatically. This also allows the mailer to be informed of mail itemsthat require reprinting.

Generate Batch Id

This feature allows the accounting system 14 to take control of thebatch number. It can use this identifier to make an impression on theenvelope of an item of mail as part of the digital postal indicium itbears. Even if the batch number has been generated in the mailer systems10, it will be entered into the accounting system 14 to allow internaltracking and control to be performed by the mailer.

Cryptography

This is a core element of the accounting system 14. It can be used toelectronically sign data being generated in the accounting system 14 toensure that any tampering of data will be evident to the postal service.It can also be used to either sign or produce a token to be placed onthe digital postage indicium to validate a mail piece.

FIG. 5 shows in diagrammatic form the signal flow, in one possibleoperation mode, between the SAS 14, the ISC 125 and the operatorterminal 126. It may seen how an unsolicited error message may be issuedfrom the SAS 14 to the ISC 125, which will cause an error message to bedisplayed on the screen of terminal 126. The ISC responds with a messageindicating that the machine is stopped. Upon receipt of a start signalfrom the operation, the ISC queries the SAS to determine the devicestate. If the error condition is uncleared, an error status signal isreturned, again displayed to the operator. Upon re-trying to start thesystem, the operator causes a further status query to be sent to theSAS, which then responds with a “ready” signal. The run screen is thendisplayed to the operator.

1. A mail production system comprising: a mail finishing system (12) forconverting documents into finished items of mail ready for hand-over toa postal service, said mail finishing system having a print sub-system(120) and at least one stacker; a secure accounting system (14) forgenerating accounting data relating to the items of mail produced by themail finishing system (12); and an inserter system controller (125)operatively connected to the mail finishing system (12) and to thesecure accounting system (14), for at least control of said at least onestacker; wherein the secure accounting system directly controls theprint sub-system (120) of the mail finishing system (12) and controlsthe overall operation of the mail finishing system (12) by communicatingwith the inserter system controller (125), which in turn controls theoperation of the mail finishing system (12) pursuant to commandsreceived from the secure accounting system (14).
 2. A mail productionsystem according to claim 1, wherein the print sub-system (120) is forapplying a postage indicium to an item of mail produced by the mailfinishing system (12) in accordance with the accounting data generatedby the secure accounting system (14).
 3. A mail production systemaccording to claim 2, wherein the secure accounting system is able todelay or stop operation of the mail finishing system (12).
 4. A mailproduction system according to claim 3, wherein the mail finishingsystem (12) comprises an inserter machine for inserting collations ofdocuments into envelopes and the inserter system controller is forcontrolling said inserter during normal operation thereof, said secureaccounting system (14) being able to override control of said insertermachine by said inserter system controller by providing control signalsto said inserter system controller.
 5. A mail production systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the secure accounting system is able todelay or stop operation of the mail finishing system (12).
 6. A mailproduction system according to claim 1, wherein the mail finishingsystem (12) comprises an inserter machine for inserting collations ofdocuments into envelopes and the inserter system controller is forcontrolling said inserter during normal operation thereof, said secureaccounting system (14) being able to override control of said insertermachine by said inserter system controller by providing control signalsto said inserter system controller.
 7. A method of producing mailcomprising: converting documents into finished items of mail ready forhand-over to a postal service using a mail finishing system (12) havinga print sub-system (120) and at least one stacker; generating accountingdata relating to the items of mail produced by the mail finishing system(12) by use of a secure accounting system (14); and wherein the secureaccounting system directly controls the print sub-system (120) of themail finishing system (12), and controls the overall operation of themail finishing system (12) by communicating with an inserter systemcontroller (125) operatively connected to the mail finishing system (12)and to the secure accounting system (14), wherein the inserter systemcontroller controls the operation of the mail finishing system (12)pursuant to commands received from the secure accounting system (14). 8.A method of producing mail according to claim 7, further comprisingapplying a postage indicium by the print sub-system to an item of mailbeing produced in accordance with the accounting data generated by thesecure accounting system.
 9. A method of producing mail according toclaim 8, wherein control of the mail production by the secure accountingsystem includes delaying or stopping production of the items of mail.10. A method of producing mail according to claim 9, wherein convertingdocuments into finished items of mail comprises inserting said documentsas collations into envelopes under control of the inserter systemcontroller, normal operation of which can be overridden by said secureaccounting system.
 11. A method of producing mail according to claim 7,wherein control of the mail production by the secure accounting systemincludes delaying or stopping production of the items of mail.
 12. Amethod of producing mail according to claim 7, wherein convertingdocuments into finished items of mail comprises inserting said documentsas collations into envelopes under control of the inserter systemcontroller, normal operation of which can be overridden by said secureaccounting system.